Category: Change

Consumers are demanding action, so why are organisations only talking?

Posted on by Sana Iqbal

No longer are consumers and employees waiting for businesses to embrace ethical priorities. Instead they are now holding them accountable for their inaction. Recently, it was reported that 53 per cent of consumers have switched to lesser-known brands because they were sustainable, while 47 per cent have walked away from brands that disappoint on social issues. These values are shaping the workplace, with over 73 per cent of employees wanting their CEO to speak out on social and environmental issues. The Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have amplified the pressure on businesses to take action as more people become mindful of their consumption and social responsibility.

Take Oatly, a beloved milk alternative brand which prides itself on its sustainability. The brand is famed for its bold campaigns which puts its purpose at the heart of them. In 2019 they unveiled their ‘Ditch Milk’ campaign. Oatly’s Creative Director Michael Lee said, “Our message to the London Coffee Festival crowd and anyone else who might be interested in the future, is pretty simple — swap cow’s milk for oat drink and save the planet 73 per cent in CO2e.” Recently Oatly came under fire for selling shares to an association with purported links to deforestation. The business purpose and actions were at odds, and Oatly received a fierce social media backlash with some consumers boycotting the brand. Oatly is open and proud of its environmental record, so keeping this controversial decision quiet created a vacuum for consumers to believe they had broken their sustainability promise. Oatly responded by releasing a statement to explain the decision and time will tell if trust will be recovered. 

The risk of disengaging employees and customers who increasingly value companies’ contributions to society over profit is a large one. In 2016 NFL player Colin Kapernick was exiled by the league after taking the knee in protest of police brutality. Nike supported his protest against racial injustice by featuring him in bold advertising campaigns. Nike was met with customer support shown through a jump in sales. Nike has continued to feature Colin Kapernick with him becoming one of the faces for its 30th anniversary campaign. Public solidarity was soon met with criticism when Nike’s 2019 diversity record came into the spotlight, with less than 10 per cent of its vice presidents being Black. Nike’s genuine commitment for racial equality was questioned when its own internal structures didn’t match. This criticism was heightened when past and present Black Nike employees anonymously took to social media to share their experiences of racism.

Nike went from being seen as a genuine supporter to a performative ally. Nike’s CEO John Donahoe released a statement saying “We’ve stepped up our own efforts and measures of accountability in the areas of diversity, inclusion and belonging to foster an inclusive environment and attract a more diverse workforce.” He went on to pledge $40 million to “support the Black community in the US”.

A organisation’s disconnect between its purpose, messaging and actions is increasingly being scrutinised by a society which wants and expects better. One client we recently worked with placed its purpose at the heart of its narrative. The narrative echoed words of belonging and opportunities for all, yet the visuals told a very different story – not a single image of their teams included an employee from an ethnic minority background. The CEO felt the images had to remain, so the truth of its poor diversity record would awaken leadership to address the problem. The visual depicting the business’s future was replaced from a homogenous group of white males to a range of ages, gender and ethnicities. The CEO hoped the story visuals would hold the leadership team accountable, so they would feel compelled to take action and enact the narrative’s goals of building a business where everyone belonged. 

The pandemic, Climate Emergency and Black Lives Matter have put the spotlight on businesses who fail to live up to consumer values which now focus around care, equality and safety. Leaders have to accept they have a responsibility to engage with these issues to better society and protect the environment. Indeed, 64 per cent of consumers are ‘belief-driven buyers,’ meaning they will switch or boycott a brand based on its stance on these issues. The next generation is especially concerned, so in order to attract and retain talent it should be a priority. Having a story which connects and voices both ethical and strategic priorities will bring everyone on the business journey. It will ensure every decision made within the organisation is in service of keeping these urgent priorities, making the organisation relevant, respected and believed in. 

To find out more about the power of storytelling to inspire and fuel change, read and download our ebook: ‘Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change’.

The integrity of purpose

Posted on by Alastair Hagger

Ruined reputations spin lasting stories.

We are living through times where the careless, the insensitive, or the selfish act can impact not only the reputations of those responsible but also the health and wellbeing of other human beings. The eyes of the world are closely watching the decisions that businesses make; mistakes during a pandemic mean so much more than just managerial errors of judgement.

A BOOHOO warehouse is a “coronavirus breeding ground”, in the words of its own staff, and the company loses 40% of its share price in just two weeks. Sports Direct lobbies the government to keep stores open at the start of the outbreak, and must make a humiliating public apology just days later. The union GMB reports that 98% of its ASOS workers feel unsafe in one of the retail giant’s warehouses, which is overwhelmed with new orders after its German counterpart closes.

These companies will now be looking to rapidly re-examine their purpose and values. They will need to refresh priorities and repair the damage done to customer perception, but they also will be mindful of the internal implications of a purely profit-driven agenda: disengaged, unhappy employees, searching for new horizons at an organisation whose values are more closely aligned with their own. The global trust deficit is widening. Discussions about corporate purpose are increasingly framed around authenticity and benevolence, and employees are instinctively inclined to look to their employer for guidance during a crisis: the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, for example, indicates that staff trust their company’s coronavirus information first, before NGOs, governments and media.

The implications are obvious. Getting things wrong can and will have a devastating effect on a company’s health and reputation; getting them right can dynamically propel an organisation into the ‘new normal’, fitter and stronger than ever.

One organisation getting it very right is the luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). Its perfume and cosmetics sites have retooled their lines to make hand sanitiser gel for hospitals; it is producing masks at 12 of its workshops; and proceeds of sales of several of its products have been donated to the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. At Easter, it gifted 3,000 Easter chocolates to hospitalised children and children of medical personnel in Paris hospitals, and breakfasts to hospital staff throughout the crisis. It has also reached out to a variety of partner organisations, such as Viva Technology and St Martin’s School of Art, to explore ways in which technology and social media can provide innovative practical solutions and digital community initiatives. LMVH has dramatically repositioned its purpose: out of a mission to provide luxury has emerged a compassionate drive to help, support and comfort people in need.

Businesses emerging into the world of the ‘new normal’ need to harness the powerful, inspiring integrity of storytelling to ensure their journey is authentically and reliably purpose-driven. And in these socially distanced times, a digitally-driven story is the most effective mechanism for creating a purpose-driven organisation.

Reputations are stories. Let us help you tell yours. 

Learning from lapses: using stories for change

Posted on by Jack Moran

Inspiring introspection

Companies survive and thrive when they cultivate a culture of excellence and positively improve human lives. If mistakes are made, livelihoods can be threatened, and customers short-changed. When one business directory – responsible for showcasing the services of thousands of small businesses, freelance workers, and self-employed individuals – lapsed in its commitment to accuracy, they realised that systemic change was necessary to make manifest their mission. How was this brought about? Through the unique power of storytelling to inspire introspection. 

An error emerges

When faced with redundancy, Chris Barnes – dedicated shipyard worker – sought to ensure that his redundancy payment became a catalyst for successful employment in his future. Assertive and ambitious, he immediately devoted his energies towards retraining as a plumber. 

After months of diligent study, Barnes was ready to seize the new opportunities now available to him, and decided that a sensible course of action – self-employed, but in a tight-knit community in which word-of-mouth marketing would give him a decided edge – would be to place an ad in a well-known, high-circulation business directory.

Abuzz with anticipation, he sent his details to the directory, paid the necessary fee, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

New to the profession as he was, he couldn’t help but feel surprised that weeks passed by without a single client approach. 

A couple of months later, a rather disgruntled old lady sent a strongly-worded letter to the business directory, testily telling them that a number of her fellow townspeople seemed to believe that she was a plumber. After some embarrassed placating of her complaints, and a hurried internal investigation, it emerged that a careless clerk had entered an incorrect phone number into the database from which the directory was created. This error had misdirected dozens of calls to the surprised lady, and cost Barnes thousands of pounds in work.

A new programme prioritises precision

Though this lapse wasn’t the first that the directory had experienced that year, that month, that week, or even that day, it was one of the most painful and costly. When the organization’s leaders began constructing their plans to transform the company’s processes and implement new programs, this story was crucial. Though highly embarrassing, it helped company leaders to clarify – through compelling narrative example – the sort of organization they didn’t want to be.

By foregrounding this story, they were able to impress upon all employees the key points of their new programme: attention to detail, quality control, and increased employee accountability – all with a recognition that better processes promoted better lives for their customers. 

They also sought to ensure that the plumber’s story with them ended a little better than it began. As part of a cross-company commitment to ensure that all mistakes were remedied, he was offered a free yearlong advertisement. During the next year, business flourished for both the grateful recipient and the business directory, with employees newly mindful of the importance of attention to detail – and of the unique power of stories to transform company culture.

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change.

Navigating to the new normal: are you ready?

Posted on by Ben Green

Businesses now, more than ever, require a collective resilience and clear strategy to navigate through one of the most unprecedented times of crisis in history since World War II. As is often the case, times of extreme challenge define businesses’ future success. 

No one could have imagined quite how complex or indeed uncertain 2020 would be. Huge changes have already taken place in organisations – shifts in technology, remote working, operations and supply chains. We recently wrote about how you can create connection out of disconnection, and as a result forge a collaborative and resilient organisation. Building on this, we recognise that leaders now need to be looking ahead and unlocking action.

Resilience and action are key attributes of high-performing teams, and will ensure that organisations come back stronger in the post-COVID environment than before. As we move into a more recovery-focused discussion, these two qualities will ensure businesses are able to tolerate future shocks with ease.

Change is a constant, and in order to deal with it companies need to evolve with it. It’s time to build on recent achievements and start thinking ahead about the journey you will be going on in 2020.  

So when you set out your recovery playbook, keep these two core principles in mind:  

Resilience means having a positive future mindset during threat and adversity. It is also about capitalising on the uncertainties and changes of the previous few months and using these to grow. This shift in mindset requires confident leadership with a clear narrative that engages and forges trust with your people.

Action comes after the path to success has been paved. This is about moving forwards with pace. During the initial shocks of the crisis, many organisations changed their business models overnight, and this energy needs to be harnessed. 

So how do organisations successfully cope with the demands of the next 12 months?  

We’ve identified three key learnings that have really stood out as being useful tools in helping navigate this difficult time and beyond: 

Proactivity: think on your feet and think about your customers to stay ahead of the game. Your external story – the story others tell about you – is crucial right now. Keep customer perceptions high by looking after your people first and embracing change. Indeed, in a sample of 269 white collar workers, proactive personality was directly related to resilient behaviours in the workplace (Nguyen et al, 2016).

Agility: accept the global landscape as it is right in the moment. Consider that how we operate may shift just as much tomorrow as it has today. Be willing and ready to move with that shift.

Staying connected: ensure teams are integrated, that they keep talking and have solid lines of communication in place. Use each other as springboards for both support and innovation. In a previous paper, we outlined eight actions leaders need to take in order to foster collaborative and resilient teams. As the road to recovery is paved, having connection to vision and purpose will drive action and improve performance. 

You only have to look out in the world at the moment to see how the language of connection is so important, whether it’s Barclays telling their customers “we’re here to help” or Lloyds Banking Group providing “free digital skills” to keep their customers connected during the crisis. The same imperative applies to people and workforce teams: at the front and centre of leaders’ minds should be actions to keep people engaged and motivated.

Embrace the future of work 
Acting fast and capitalising on the pace of change instigated by the last few months will be a source of competitive advantage for organisations. Now is the time to embrace the future of work. This shift was always coming, but COVID has accelerated trends in remote working, digital connection and collaboration tools. 

Our health-check profile aims to help leaders reflect and measure their organisation’s ability to capitalise on the pace of change and grow in the next 12 months. By laying the foundations for resilience and action now, companies can ensure not just recovery, but success in the post-pandemic world. 

By completing a series of 14 questions, our consultants will provide you with a unique profile, mapping your organisation according to four key scales:

  • Strategic Alignment: are leaders and teams emotionally engaged in the journey the business is on? What role will they play in its success? 
  • Identity and purpose: The extent to which leaders and their teams feel proud to be part of the business and are emotionally connected to the role it plays in the world 
  • Change: Do you people embrace change and are they able to adapt, change and innovate? 
  • Organisational fitness: The extent to which leaders and their teams are able perform both practically and emotionally at their best

The profile should be a thought-provoking tool, highlighting risk and opportunity areas; and inspiring questions such as ‘do we have a vision for the path ahead’ or ‘what strengths should we be leveraging?’. We want to help you answer those questions.

Are you ready to start your journey to the new normal? To receive a personalised report from our team followed by a free consultation session, click here to take our latest diagnostic.

Diagnostic: navigating to the new normal, are you ready?

Posted on by Marcus Hayes

Businesses now, more than ever, require a collective resilience and clear strategy to navigate through one of the most unprecedented times of crisis in history since World War II. As is often the case, times of extreme challenge define businesses’ future success. 

So how ready are your leaders for the journey the business needs to go on through and beyond this pandemic?

The Storytellers’ health-check profile is intended to be a thought-provoking tool for business leaders during our current global pandemic. We are constantly talking to executives across different industries as they shape the story they are using to engage and connect their people. We’ve pulled together insights from their agenda, together with research from other organisations, to identify what leaders need to be focusing on now to enable their organisations to both survive the next 12 months and thrive beyond it.

Our health-check profile provides a succinct and clear insight into some of the common pitfalls of organisations which fail through adversity as well as defining what great can look like, and what organisations ‘getting it right’ stand to gain. The results are simply an indication for potential risk and opportunity areas to consider; they shouldn’t be used to inform organisational decisions without additional data points and consultation.

The story of innovation

Posted on by Joe Mackay

Lockdown has accelerated business trends by two decades in two months, with great gains in agility, remote collaboration and work-life integration. But as we emerge from crisis into prolonged reality, what are the costs to long-term creativity – and how do we overcome them? 

The 2010s was a decade which catapulted innovation from baggy noun into spatial and cultural blueprint. Offices became labs in which open space, hot-desks and even wayfinding was orchestrated to help the spark of inspiration tear through employee populations like, well, a virus. So essential was this spontaneous physicality considered that the Francis Crick Institute – a project of ground-breaking scientific collaboration and a steady stream of discovery – designed its cutting-edge facility specifically to ensure different ‘tribes’ could bump into each other and cross-pollinate their research. Such careful curation, engineered by the world’s most pioneering technologists, is a tribute to the distinctly low-fi stakes at play in the business of newness. 

Because the truth is this: world changing ideas have always been an informal affair; a product of time and place verses system of production. We think of the Viennese coffee houses of Freud, pre-revolutionary Paris, and studio 54 New York. We think of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, side by side, day after day, year after year, bouncing around the stories of war that would become behavioural economics. 

As we crash out of the 2010s into a pandemic reality which sees us bunker down and keep our distance, we have lost the opportunity of chance encounters and unstructured exchange that has always been the fuel of invention. As the inevitable economic pain sets in, and business across the board is forced to focus on efficiencies, concern is mounting over the loss of innovation in a time that will need its leaps of progress more than ever.  

A culture of storytelling  

Lockdown may limit chance encounters, but it doesn’t have to limit spontaneity. The question, for leaders, is not how to innovate, but how to orchestrate. The unit of innovation is storytelling; diversity is its fuel; unstructured exchange is its playground. To ensure story can collide with story,  and space has been made to catch its spark, a storytelling culture must be nurtured that may feel distinctly at odds with the tightly-knit, outcomes-focused blocks of time that many have adopted as a matter of survival during the last weeks. The informal innovation economy needs dialogue, observation, and trust; a willingness to share personal experience and insight that may not be a straight line to productive output. 

Leaders at every level have an essential role to play in building these relationships, role modelling this practice and sanctioning this time as a critical business activity. 

In hitting the reset button, organisations may find lockdown actually unlocks many old innovation blockers. Freed of old habits and assumptions, teams may break free of creative cliques and creative ruts. Curating new moments for conversation and collaboration, innovation – often owned by a handful of individuals – can be decentralised, giving individuals new licence to deploy their experience in new and inspiring ways. 

Build human connection 

Organisations that achieve this will be keeping good company. Unreasonable Fund, one of the world’s most innovative organisations, has built their globally-dispersed but tightly-knit culture on such ritualised story-exchanges in order to spark sustainable pipelines of new thinking and the productivity gains of deeply bonded team-mates. While lockdown will be taxing for everyone, businesses built on agile models of distinctly human connection will fare far better. 

This last point should not be under-estimated. In an age where lockdown is forcing us to rely on tools of artificial connection, we are collectively longing for moments of authenticity. Story has always been the original technology of human connection. As a world, as businesses, as humans, we need it more than ever.  

Working more smartly: inspiring innovation culture through stories

Posted on by Jack Moran

Cultivating cross-company collaboration

From time-to-time, any company can experience a slump. One international carrier, facing intensifying competition and increasing change fatigue across the organisation, was seeking to reinvigorate their flagging financial and cultural fortunes. To do so, they knew that engaging and empowering their entire workforce was imperative, while also encouraging them to ‘work more smartly’. How did they achieve this? By using the immense connective power of stories.

An introvert’s ingenuity

In any organisation, there are diamonds in the rough – ingenious individuals whose capacity to create meaningful change is unlimited. Some, however, are hidden deep in that rough, buried by bureaucracy or too shy to be seen. Yet the executive decision to use stories to bring people together helped our competition-challenged carrier to make the most of one introvert’s ingenuity.

Each week, the company allotted half an hour of working time designed for internal storytelling – a time when employees were asked to listen to, and learn from, each other. 

During one such workshop, it became clear that shy Keith Mallard possessed a passion for creating spreadsheets – a passion that had him fiddling with formulas and tinkering with tables into his evenings and weekends. Recognizing that his talent might help the company make major efficiency savings, Mr. Mallard was asked to apply his talents to help the company be smarter.

A culture change

The diamond now uncovered, Mr. Mallard’s spreadsheet didn’t just offer thousands of pounds of short-term efficiency savings (though it did that, too) – it also became an enduring part of our carrier’s culture, retaining long-term value as one of the company’s go-to spreadsheets. But the impact went beyond inspiring one increase in efficiency in one area of the company. In fact, storytelling offered employees across the organisation the chance to share best practice, inspire new ways of working, and create learning opportunities every single week: an innovation culture, driven by storytelling.

The results were remarkable. After two years of losses – nine-figure losses! – the carrier was able to report a £15 million profit shortly after implementation of their storytelling program. Yet the power of stories was as personally valuable as it was pragmatically so. Enhanced employee morale and engagement was visible in both an 11% year-on-year fall in staff turnover and a decline in absenteeism: an enduring testament to the power of stories to connect, create, transform, and inspire. 

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change

The power of connection: how to create a collaborative and resilient organisation

Posted on by Alison Esse

At The Storytellers, we believe that there has never been a more important time to unlock the power of connection. Our interest is not only why the power of connection is so vital, but also how it can be tapped into. 

Change – whether planned or unforeseen – can offer opportunities for collaboration, which in turn can help build a surge in energy and motivation. Connected organisations perform better, are more agile and resilient to future shocks.

Over 17 years and across our work with 180 companies, we’ve seen many examples of teams who have collaborated to achieve outcomes that were previously thought to be impossible. We have heard countless stories about what people are capable of achieving when they are tested and thrown into challenging circumstances. As humans, we have developed a remarkable ability to adapt. And when we collaborate, we are able to achieve outcomes that go beyond the capability of the individual.

We have found that is connection that acts as the key enabler and the driving force behind collaboration and collective intelligence. In today’s environment, with the radical shift towards remote-working, connection is being threatened like never before. What is at stake? Connection in all its forms: the relationship people and their leaders, a shared sense of purpose and collaborative working practices – to name but a few. 

We have identified the crucial steps leaders can take to mitigate these risks and unlock the power of connection. Now is the time to harness the opportunity of change and prepare for the future of work. 

Download our white paper in full by completing the form on this page, and reach out to us if you need guidance and support in connecting your organisation. 

Cultivating customer connections: delivering meaningful change through stories

Posted on by Joe Mackay

The customer retention challenge

The best businesses know that their success is – in large part – based on the willingness of their customers and clients to keep returning. The best businesses endure over time because they’re able to offer exceptional, personal customer experiences that show the world that they care. How? Through the power of stories to spearhead meaningful change.

Demanding margins

Companies everywhere want to showcase the interpersonal connections behind their day-to-day work, but few will ever be given as virally sharable a story as a leading car rental company were by Hayley Clark and the Mouriks. In a world of intensifying competition, skyrocketing customer expectations, and a need to meet demanding new performance standards – it was clear that offering standout experiences was the way to foster outstanding business performance.

Imagine, then: an elderly Australian couple on a sweltering summer night, having recently returned their car rental to Hayley and ventured out to seek accommodation ahead of their morning flight to Dublin. Imagine: Hayley, glancing out from her rental office four hours later to see that same elderly couple sitting outside the airport, looking weary and discomfited.

Imagine: your employee, Hayley, establishing that the Open Golf Championship has seen all of the hotels within Prestwick Airport’s environs fully booked, leaving no room for that elderly couple. Imagine your employee, Hayley, without hesitation, driving the Mouriks back to her house, feeding and watering them with a hasty-but-hearty fish-and-chip dinner, setting them up for the night – and then waking up to drive them back to Prestwick Airport in time to make their 5AM flight.

Spearheading success through storytelling

Most car rental experiences don’t end with the renters inviting the car rental clerk to visit them in Australia as a token of gratitude, but most car rental experiences don’t involve a customer service story as filled with generosity, selflessness, and a willingness to go the extra mile as that of the Mouriks and Hayley Clark.

When the Mouriks’ experience emerged, the company knew that it was an opportunity to share a story that encapsulated their values with the world. For their customer-facing employees, Hayley’s exceptional efforts offered an emotive exemplar of how they should engage. The bar had been set in spectacular fashion.

The results? Not only did the power of storytelling work internally to inspire the car rental company’s employees to improve customer service – and, consequently, retention – it was also seen in the widespread word-of-mouth marketing the company enjoyed across Australia – and beyond.

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change